Adaptogens comprise a category of herbal medicinal and nutritional products promoting adaptability, resilience, and survival of living organisms in stress. The aim of this review was to summarize the ...growing knowledge about common adaptogenic plants used in various traditional medical systems (TMS) and conventional medicine and to provide a modern rationale for their use in the treatment of stress‐induced and aging‐related disorders. Adaptogens have pharmacologically pleiotropic effects on the neuroendocrine‐immune system, which explain their traditional use for the treatment of a wide range of conditions. They exhibit a biphasic dose‐effect response: at low doses they function as mild stress‐mimetics, which activate the adaptive stress‐response signaling pathways to cope with severe stress. That is in line with their traditional use for preventing premature aging and to maintain good health and vitality. However, the potential of adaptogens remains poorly explored. Treatment of stress and aging‐related diseases require novel approaches. Some combinations of adaptogenic plants provide unique effects due to their synergistic interactions in organisms not obtainable by any ingredient independently. Further progress in this field needs to focus on discovering new combinations of adaptogens based on traditional medical concepts. Robust and rigorous approaches including network pharmacology and systems pharmacology could help in analyzing potential synergistic effects and, more broadly, future uses of adaptogens. In conclusion, the evolution of the adaptogenic concept has led back to basics of TMS and a new level of understanding of holistic approach. It provides a rationale for their use in stress‐induced and aging‐related diseases.
In a retrospective analysis, the authors investigated day‐by‐day blood pressure variability (BPV) and its association with clinical outcomes (critical vs. severe and discharged) in hospitalized ...patients with COVID‐19. The study participants were hospitalized in Tongji Hospital, Guanggu Branch, Wuhan, China, between February 1 and April 1, 2020. BPV was assessed as standard derivation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), and variability independent of mean (VIM). The 79 participants included 60 (75.9%) severe patients discharged from the hospital after up to 47 days of hospitalization, and 19 (24.1%) critically ill patients transferred to other hospitals for further treatment (n = 13), admitted to ICU (n = 3) or died (n=3). Despite similar use of antihypertensive medication (47.4% vs. 41.7%) and mean levels of systolic/diastolic blood pressure (131.3/75.2 vs. 125.4/77.3 mmHg), critically ill patients, compared with severe and discharged patients, had a significantly (p ≤ .04) greater variability of systolic (SD 14.92 vs. 10.84 mmHg, CV 11.39% vs. 8.56%, and VIM 15.15 vs. 10.75 units) and diastolic blood pressure (SD 9.38 vs. 7.50 mmHg, CV 12.66% vs. 9.80%, and VIM 9.33 vs. 7.50 units). After adjustment for confounding factors, the odds ratios for critical versus severe and discharged patients for systolic BPV were 3.41 (95% confidence interval CI 1.20‐9.66, p = .02), 4.09 (95% CI 1.14‐14.67, p = .03), and 2.81 (95% CI 1.12‐7.05, p = .03) for each 5‐mmHg increment in SD, 5% increment in CV, and 5‐unit increment in VIM, respectively. Similar trends were observed for diastolic BPV indices (p ≤ .08). In conclusion, in patients with COVID‐19, BPV was greater and associated with worse clinical outcomes.
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•The combination of chemical fingerprint and chemometrics is a powerful tool for quality assessment of herbal medicines.•Overviews of fingerprint technologies, chemometrics methods, ...analysis workflow and application scopes are provided.•Optimization selection of fingerprint technologies and chemometrics methods depend on practical purpose is highlighted.
Herbal medicine (HM) has been playing a pivotal role in maintaining human health since ancient times, and its therapeutic theory and clinical experience are the precious traditional medical knowledge reserves. As HM occupies an important position in its own right in global healthcare systems, robust quality assessment and control over its complex chemical composition was of great significance to assure its efficacy and safety. Over the past decades, the concept of HM chemical fingerprints aiming to obtain a comprehensive characterization of complex chemical matrices has become one of the most convincing tools for the quality assessment of HM. This review summarizes the recent analytical techniques used to generate HM chemical fingerprints, including chromatography, vibrational spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. The advantages, drawbacks, and the application scope of each technology have been scrutinized in an attempt to better understand the data analysis. Furthermore, HM fingerprints together with multivariate and multiway chemometrics methods used for different application domains, such as similarity, exploratory, classification, and regression analysis, have also been discussed and illustrated with a few typical studies. The article provides a general picture and workflow of fingerprinting analyses that have been used for the quality assessment of HM.
Due to a variety of factors to affect the herb quality, the existing quality management model is unable to evaluate the process control. The development of the concept of “quality marker” (Q-marker) ...lays basis for establishing an independent process quality control system for herbal products.
To ensure the highest degree of safety, effectiveness and quality process control of herbal products, it is aimed to establish a quality transitivity and traceability system of quality and process control from raw materials to finished herbal products.
Based on the key issues and challenges of quality assessment, the current status of quality and process controls from raw materials to herbal medicinal products listed in Pharmacopoeia were analyzed and the research models including discovery and identification of Q-markers, analysis and quality management of risk evaluation were designed.
Authors introduced a few new technologies and methodologies, such as DNA barcoding, chromatographic technologies, fingerprint analysis, chemical markers, bio-responses, risk management and solution for quality process control.
The quality and process control models for herbal medicinal products were proposed and the transitivity and traceability system from raw materials to the finished products was constructed to improve the herbal quality from the entire supply and production chain.
The transitivity and traceability system has been established based on quality markers, especially on how to control the production process under Good Engineering Practices, as well as to implement the risk management for quality and process control in herbal medicine production.
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Emerging evidence indicates that osteoclasts direct osteoblastic bone formation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have a crucial role in regulating osteoclast and osteoblast function. However, whether miRNAs ...mediate osteoclast-directed osteoblastic bone formation is mostly unknown. Here, we show that increased osteoclastic miR-214-3p associates with both elevated serum exosomal miR-214-3p and reduced bone formation in elderly women with fractures and in ovariectomized (OVX) mice. Osteoclast-specific miR-214-3p knock-in mice have elevated serum exosomal miR-214-3p and reduced bone formation that is rescued by osteoclast-targeted antagomir-214-3p treatment. We further demonstrate that osteoclast-derived exosomal miR-214-3p is transferred to osteoblasts to inhibit osteoblast activity in vitro and reduce bone formation in vivo. Moreover, osteoclast-targeted miR-214-3p inhibition promotes bone formation in ageing OVX mice. Collectively, our results suggest that osteoclast-derived exosomal miR-214-3p transfers to osteoblasts to inhibit bone formation. Inhibition of miR-214-3p in osteoclasts may be a strategy for treating skeletal disorders involving a reduction in bone formation.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been an indispensable source of drugs for curing various human diseases. However, the inherent chemical diversity and complexity of TCM restricted the safety ...and efficacy of its usage. Over the past few decades, the combination of liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry has contributed greatly to the TCM qualitative analysis. And novel approaches have been continuously introduced to improve the analytical performance, including both the data acquisition methods to generate a large and informative dataset, and the data post-processing tools to extract the structure-related MS information. Furthermore, the fast-developing computer techniques and big data analytics have markedly enriched the data processing tools, bringing benefits of high efficiency and accuracy. To provide an up-to-date review of the latest techniques on the TCM qualitative analysis, multiple data-independent acquisition methods and data-dependent acquisition methods (precursor ion list, dynamic exclusion, mass tag, precursor ion scan, neutral loss scan, and multiple reaction monitoring) and post-processing techniques (mass defect filtering, diagnostic ion filtering, neutral loss filtering, mass spectral trees similarity filter, molecular networking, statistical analysis, database matching, etc.) were summarized and categorized. Applications of each technique and integrated analytical strategies were highlighted, discussion and future perspectives were proposed as well.
This review summarized the mechanisms and applications of various data acquisition and data post-processing techniques of liquid chromatography−mass spectrometry (LC−MS) in qualitative analysis of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Display omitted
Covering: 2011 to the end of 2020
Panax
species (Araliaceae), particularly
P. ginseng
,
P. quinquefolius
, and
P. notoginseng
, have a long history of medicinal use because of their remarkable ...tonifying effects, and currently serve as crucial sources for various healthcare products, functional foods, and cosmetics, aside from their vast clinical preparations. The huge market demand on a global scale prompts the continuous prosperity in ginseng research concerning the discovery of new compounds, precise quality control, ADME (absorption/disposition/metabolism/excretion), and biosynthesis pathways. Benefitting from the ongoing rapid development of analytical technologies,
e.g.
multi-dimensional chromatography (MDC), personalized mass spectrometry (MS) scan strategies, and multi-omics, highly recognized progress has been made in driving ginseng analysis towards "systematicness, integrity, personalization, and intelligentization". Herein, we review the advances in the phytochemistry, quality control, metabolism, and biosynthesis pathway of ginseng over the past decade (2011-2020), with 410 citations. Emphasis is placed on the introduction of new compounds isolated (saponins and polysaccharides), and the emerging novel analytical technologies and analytical strategies that favor ginseng's authentic use and global consumption. Perspectives on the challenges and future trends in ginseng analysis are also presented.
This review focuses on the advances and challenges in the phytochemistry, quality control, metabolism, and biosynthesis pathway of ginseng from 2011 to 2020.
Covering: up to July 2020
Drugs derived from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) include both single chemical entities and multi-component preparations. Drugs of both types play a significant role in ...the healthcare system in China, but are not well-known outside China. The research and development process, the molecular mechanisms of action, and the clinical evaluation associated with some exemplificative anticancer drugs based on TCM are discussed, along with their potential of integration in western medicine.
Drugs derived from traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) include both single chemical entities and multi-component preparations.
Comprehensive characterization of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions has long been a hurdle due to the chemical complexity and the lack of analytical tools. Mahuang decoction is a well‐known ...traditional Chinese medicine prescription widely used for sweating and relieving the exterior, relieving cough and asthma, but it was insufficiently chemically scrutinized. In this study, the chemical component information of Mahuang decoction was investigated by ultrahigh‐performance liquid chromatography tandem linear ion trap‐Orbitrap mass spectrometry. A new data processing tool, feature‐based molecular networking, was introduced for grouping and elucidating the compounds. In this way, 156 chemical components were identified or tentatively characterized, including alkaloids, triterpenoid saponins, flavanone‐O‐glycosides, flavone‐C‐glycosides, and procyanidins. Thus, this research provides a solid foundation for further development of Mahuang decoction, and the adopted method is expected to be applied to other traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.
Introduction
Achyranthes bidentata Blume (AB) has been used for a long time and is recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2020 edition. It is commonly confused with Achyranthes aspera Linn (AA), ...Cyathula officinalis Kuan (CO) and Cyathula capitata (Wall.) Moq. (CC), belonging to the Achyranthes and Cyathula genera of the Amaranthaceae family. It is of great significance to recognize and distinguish chemical components of AB, AA, CO and CC.
Objective
The purpose of this study was to develop an analytical method for in‐depth characterization and comparison of saponins in AB, AA, CO and CC.
Methods
The extracts of AB, AA, CO and CC were analyzed by an RP × RP (C18 × Phenyl‐Hexyl) 2D LC system, eluted by acidic × ion pair mobile phases and detected by high resolution mass spectrometry. Fragmentation patterns of saponins were elucidated and proposed according to reference compounds or literature reports.
Results
As a result, 839 saponins consisting of 81, 415, 99 and 392 components corresponding to AB, AA, CO and CC, respectively, were characterized, including 594 potentially new saponins. Meanwhile, 29 kinds of aglycones were elucidated, among which 25 were new ones. Besides, 14, 91, 37 and 174 characteristic potential quality markers with MS intensities exceeding 10,000 were found in AB, AA, CO and CC, respectively.
Conclusion
This comprehensive study not only expands our knowledge of the types of saponins in Achyranthes and Cyathula, but also reveals the differences among four kinds of analogous herbs (AB, AA, CO and CC), which facilitates the quality control of these herbal medicines in the future.
The purpose of this study was to develop an analytical method for in‐depth characterization and comparison of saponins from four species in Achyranthes and Cyathula genera. Eight hundred thirty‐nine saponins were characterized, including 594 potential new saponins. This comprehensive study not only enriched the types of saponins in Achyranthes and Cyathula genera but also revealed the differences among four kinds of analogous herbs, which facilitates the quality control of these herbal medicines in future.
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